Saturday, July 1, 2017

Dan Savage: Why don't Dems play dirtier?

This is really good stuff from "Savage Love" writer Dan Savage, someone I've read since his column was carried in the Onion and now the Isthmus.

Savage went on Bill Maher last night, and said that Democrats need to fight dirty and be as blunt as Republicans. Instead, they somehow think that being nicer will be rewarded, and it doesn't, and it allows evil to flourish. While I disagree with his Coastal smuggishness about blowing off rural America entirely (easy for Savage to say on the West Coast), he is right in that Dems suck at messaging, and need to blast back fiercely against this thuggish GOP crew.


Savage's point about how Dems need to correctly call Medicare and Social Security EARNED BENEFITS is a big one, and how "gay marriage" got a lot more acceptable when it was rightfully called MARRIAGE EQUALITY. Likewise, need to stop calling it education "spending" and instead rightfully call them INVESTMENTS. And we need to stop shrugging at Republicans who suppress votes and call them CHEATERS WHO DO NOT BELIEVE THEY CAN WIN ON THEIR IDEAS.

This isn't hard to do, but Dems need to recognize that the game has changed, and that campaign politics is not a civil debate club anymore. Come strong, or don't come at all.

5 comments:

  1. Republicans learned a long time ago what and how a message is presented matters. The "modest" changes in Act 10 were only modest if they didn't affect you.

    I believe the democrats need to get a brand and find a way to get every democrat to use the same vocabulary over and over. Couldn't agree with Mr. Savage.

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    1. For the record, MCG corrected it to "couldn't agree MORE with Mr. Savage," but my fat fingers hit "delete" instead of "publish."

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  2. What is that saying that "nice guys finish last?"

    The democrats have to start playing hard and very smart.

    The facts are on the side of the dems in every issue. Tell the truth of who the parties are working for.

    The dems are working for the working class.

    The repubs are working for the 1%.

    Is it really that hard to state the case?

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  3. Bernie actually introducing a single payer health care system would be the first piece of evidence that Democrats "are for the working class." Suggest you all widen your sources of information.

    DNC/DLC leadership is not/has not supported the middle class since pre-Clinton times. If actual progressive values are going to prevail, it is not coming from the duopoly led by the kleptocracy. Until knuckle-dragging Democrats drop their leadership, ask their state parties to hold national leadership by not sending them any money and instead start spending all of it in state, you all will continue to miss the point.

    The national party dosen't give one damn hoot about you.

    When the narrative at the heart of a system of rule falls apart, when the flow of history runs counter to the story told by those in power, then we know the entire edifice is crumbling under the weight of its own contradictions. The political crisis arrives when the people sense that the prevailing order is built on a foundation of oppressions and lies. The rulers panic, scrambling to reweave the matrix of fables and myths that justify their waning supremacy. At such points in history, the truth is up for grabs -- and a change of regime is in the offing.

    https://blackagendareport.com/capitalism%27s_fake_news

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  4. Hard ball in attack ads - effective messaging to the common man at ground level.

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